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Discussion
The results of this study give important information about the exercise
habits of Turkish adolescents in Edirne. It is remarkable that the
rate of moderate exercises is less than the rate of heavy exercises.
This is valid for both boys and girls. The reason for this situation
is attributed to the fact that some branches of sports, such as swimming,
gymnastics, dancing, and table tennis, are not conventionally common
in Turkey. On the other hand, the branches of sports, which require
a saloon or equipment, such as, swimming, and gymnastics are possibly
not common due to the financial limitations in Turkey.
Weekly exercise rates are low when compared with other studies. Fuchs
et al. found in their research TIME as 8.8 hours/week for girls and
4.0 hours/week for boys, heavy activity rate as 1.6 hour/week for
girls and 4.0 hours/week for boys, and moderate activity rate as 6.3
hour/week for girls and 5.6 hours for boys (10). Moderate activities
of the girls are expected to be more than those of boys, but we have
not found such a result may be due to the reasons we mentioned above.
To our knowledge, the fact that 40% of the students do not participate
in any sporting activity in Edirne is reported in literature for the
first time. This finding should be evaluated together with the reasons
for not exercising. The most important three reasons are time spent
for school, lack of
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motivation, and insufficient physical
conditions. It can be concluded that, the number of students who exercise
may be increased when the school schedules are arranged in conformity
with social activities of the students, home works are given considering
that students should spend some time on sports or, sportive activities
that are held under the auspices of school management, school and
family cooperation and other associations, and also students are enabled
to participate in these activities. Importance should be given to
infrastructure establishments, which will facilitate sportive activities.
The most popular sportive activities for both sexes were games played
with ball. It is obvious that cycling is the third one for boys and
racing for girls. Although there are neither cycling nor racing tracks
in Edirne, the interest in these branches of sports is still high.
If the necessary infrastructure is built, the rate of these exercises
may increase.
 
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